The Beijing Military Region was one of seven military regions for the Chinese

People's Liberation Army The People's Liberation Army (PLA) is the military of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the People's Republic of China (PRC). It consists of four Military branch, services—People's Liberation Army Ground Force, Ground Force, People's ...

. From the mid-1980s to 2017, it had administration of all military affairs within

Beijing Beijing, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Peking, is the capital city of China. With more than 22 million residents, it is the world's List of national capitals by population, most populous national capital city as well as ...

city,

Tianjin Tianjin is a direct-administered municipality in North China, northern China on the shore of the Bohai Sea. It is one of the National Central City, nine national central cities, with a total population of 13,866,009 inhabitants at the time of the ...

city,

Hebei Hebei is a Provinces of China, province in North China. It is China's List of Chinese administrative divisions by population, sixth-most populous province, with a population of over 75 million people. Shijiazhuang is the capital city. It bor ...

province,

Shanxi Shanxi; Chinese postal romanization, formerly romanised as Shansi is a Provinces of China, province in North China. Its capital and largest city of the province is Taiyuan, while its next most populated prefecture-level cities are Changzhi a ...

province, and Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. The Region is mainly responsible for defending the

People's Republic of China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

from Mongolia and Russia, and also protects the capital of China, and had the largest number of military personnel of any of the seven regions active from 1985 to 2017. The Region has now been disbanded and superseded by the Central Theater Command and

Northern Theater Command The Northern Theater Command () is one of the five Theater command (China), theater commands of the People's Liberation Army, founded on 1 February 2016. Its predecessor is the Shenyang Military Region, Jinan Military Region and Beijing Militar ...

. Both the 63rd and 65th Corps/Group Armies were stationed in the Beijing area after returning from the

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and remained in the region ever since, becoming Group Armies after 1985. The 13th Air Force Corps was stationed at

Shijiazhuang Shijiazhuang; Mandarin: ; formerly known as Shimen and romanized as Shihkiachwang is the capital and most populous city of China's Hebei Province. A prefecture-level city southwest of Beijing, it administers eight districts, three county-le ...

in Hebei Province from 1971 to 1976. On 26 October 1988 the 17th Air Division was reorganized into the Beijing MR Training Base (serials 6xx2x). In reductions announced in September 2003, the 24th Group Army (

), and the 63rd Group Army (Shanxi) were both disbanded. About the same time, the 10th Air Corps, also stationed in the region, was disestablished (PLAAF 2010). The

International Institute for Strategic Studies The International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) is an international research institute or think tank focusing on defence and security issues. Since 1997, its headquarters have been at Arundel House in London. It has offices on four co ...

attributed to the command 300,000 personnel in 2006, consisting of three group armies (the 27th Group Army, 38th Group Army, and the 65th Group Army), two armoured divisions, one mechanised infantry division, five motorised divisions, one artillery division, three armoured, seven motorised infantry, four artillery, a total of five various anti-aircraft brigades, and one anti-tank regiment. The command is also augmented by the PLA Beijing Garrison, which consists of the 1st and 3rd guard divisions (Military Police), and the Beijing Garrison Honor Guard Battalion and Color Guard Company, both of which are charged with

public duties Public duties are performed by military personnel, and usually have a ceremonial or historic significance rather than an overtly operational role. Armenia Since September 2018, the Honour Guard Battalion (Armenia), Honour Guard Battalion of the Mi ...

. The command is also home to the PLA Navy (PLAN)

North Sea Fleet The North Sea Fleet (NSF; ), concurrently the Northern Theater Command Navy (), is one of the three fleets of China's People's Liberation Army Navy. Headquartered in Qingdao, Shandong, the fleet provides naval forces to the Northern Theater Comma ...

. The last commander was General Song Puxuan (2014-2016). The political commissar was General Liu Fulian.

History and mission

The Beijing Military Region traces its lineage to the establishment of the Northwest Military Region in May 1948. It was renamed the Beijing Military Region in 1955, when the Inner Mongolia Military Region was downgraded to a district, and was folded into the Beijing Military Region. The Beijing Military Region is primarily charged with protecting the capital. Because of its location in the capital, the Beijing Military Region was the most important of the seven military regions. Each unit from the Beijing Military Region contributed forces to Beijing for the crackdown on the

Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 The Tiananmen Square protests, known within China as the June Fourth Incident, were student-led demonstrations held in Tiananmen Square in Beijing, China, lasting from 15 April to 4 June 1989. After weeks of unsuccessful attempts between t ...

, and these elements remained deployed in Beijing long after using deadly force to remove the demonstrators. In addition to guarding the capital, the Beijing Military Region is also in charge of training key personnel for leadership positions through the numerous military academies in the region.

Commanders

* Yang Chengwu (1955-1958) * Yang Yong (1958-1963) * Zheng Weishan (1963-1971) * Li Desheng (1971-1974) * Chen Xilian (1974-1980) * Qin Jiwei (1980-1987) *Zhou Yibing (1987-1990) *Wang Chengbin (1990-1993) *Li Laizhu (1993-1997) *Li Xinliang (1997-2002) * Zhu Qi (2002-2007) * Fang Fenghui (2007-2012) * Zhang Shibo (2012-2014) * Song Puxuan (2014-2016)

Structure

The organizational structure as of 2016 was as follows:http://www.giga-hamburg.de/dl/download.php?d=/content/ias/archiv/cds/cds_0805.pdf , p. 24. *Leadership **Commander **Deputy Commanders **Regional Chief-of-Staff **Political Commissar Fu Tinggui **Deputy Political Commissars **Political Department Director *Headquarters Department ** HQ Battalion

Direct Troops

* 27th Group Army ** Army HQ *** Army HQ Battalion * 38th Group Army * 65th Group Army

PLA Beijing Garrison

*1st Guard Division ** Beijing Garrison Honor Guard Battalion * 3rd Guard Division *17th Guard Regiment

Nickname

Organizations affiliated with the Beijing Military Region often used the nickname "comrade" (), including the Comrade Performance Troupe () and the ''Comrade Newspaper'' ().

References

{{coord missing, China Military regions of the People's Liberation Army Military units and formations established in 1955 Military units and formations disestablished in 2016 1955 establishments in China 20th-century military history of China 21st-century military history of China